Some people move to a new city for work or for school. Others have their priorities more in line, flocking to whichever city has the most impressive music scene. According to a new study conducted by ValuePenguin, which looked at 15 different data points grouped into three categories in order to determine the best U.S. cities for music fans, that city is Nashville, Tennessee.
The study looked at factors such as the number of bands per capita and the strength of the crowd at typical shows to arrive at this conclusion, which isn’t entirely unexpected given Nashville’s reputation as a mecca for musicians and fans. Some of the entries on the list do come as genuine surprises, such as Honolulu at #2 and Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY at #6, beating out such esteemed music cities as Los Angeles (#27) and Chicago (#29). Check out the top 50 below, and head over to ValuePenguin to see the rest:
01. Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN
02. Urban Honolulu, HI
03. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
04. Madison, WI
05. Austin-Round Rock, TX
06. Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY
07. Tucson, AZ
08. Rochester, NY
09. Pittsburgh, PA
10. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA
11. Salt Lake City, UT
12. Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI
13. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA
14. Eugene, OR
15. Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA
16. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
17. Asheville, NC
18. Burlington-South Burlington, VT
19. Boulder, CO
20. Binghamton, NY
21. Wilmington, NC
22. Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA
23. Fort Collins, CO
24. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL
25. Duluth, MN-WI
26. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA
27. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
28. Sioux Falls, SD
29. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI
30. New Orleans-Metairie, LA
31. Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV
32. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD
33. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO
34. Trenton, NJ
35. Colorado Springs, CO
35. Lincoln, NE
37. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT
38. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
39. Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN
40. Gainesville, FL
41. Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA
42. St. Louis, MO-IL
43. Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY
44. Appleton, WI
45. Champaign-Urbana, IL
45. Lynchburg, VA
47. Charlottesville, VA
48. Rockford, IL
49. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
50. Portland-South Portland, ME
The site also ranked the top cities for musicians (Nashville leads the pack again), radio stations (Fort Smith, AR), record studios (Nashville again), and music degrees (Boulder, CO). Check out those rankings here, and tell us how stupid they are in the comments. We know we can count on you for that.